


What About Now

by kasey1939



Series: Daina Stackhouse [1]
Category: True Blood
Genre: F/M, OC sets Sookie straight, Sassy back and forth, help is on the way
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-09
Updated: 2015-06-16
Packaged: 2018-04-03 14:48:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4104805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kasey1939/pseuds/kasey1939
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sookie's telepathic cousin comes to town to give her a hand and gets there just in time to go with her to Dallas and start to shake things up. Will she be able to get Sookie to see that Bill is not the right man for her? And if he's not then who is? Three guesses but you'll really only need one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Night Out

**Author's Note:**

> [](http://s1063.photobucket.com/user/kasey19391/media/Done%20Story%20Banners/What%20about%20now.jpg.html)  
> 

**Disclaimer – I own nothing that is owned by someone else, that would be stealing. Now enjoy.**

** **

 

 

Sookie simply could not believe it. He had left her alone on _another_ Saturday night. She may not be as wild as some of her friends but _come on_!  Taking a deep breath she tried very hard to let go of her annoyance, and failed miserably.

 

She knew part of that was because Bill never actually told her where he was going or why he _had_ to go. The only explanation she ever got was the ever popular and annoyingly vague blanket excuse. Vampire business. Which she knew was just polite vampire speak for mind your own business.

 

The more she thought about it the angrier she got, she was just picking up the phone to call that good for nothing boyfriend of hers and give him a piece of her mind when she was distracted by a knock at the door. With Bill gone she couldn't think of a single soul who would be bad mannered enough to come over so late. Throwing the cordless phone down on the couch with a huff she stomped to the door throwing it open to find… her cousin Daina.

 

"Oh my god Daina! What are you doing here, why didn't you call, where have you been?"

 

"Calm down Sook, hug first, let me in second, then questions _one at a time_ third."

 

Reaching out she drew he absent cousin into a tight hug. She's missed Daina so much! She was the only other soul she knew who had telepathy, she'd never told Bill about her cause, well you just didn't talk about other people's _afflictions_ it simply wasn't done. Finally releasing her she stepped to the side to let her in bouncing in one place the whole time. Daina was here she just couldn't believe it!

 

"So what are you doing here Daina?" While it wasn't the question she wanted answered first it was like to be the most pressing. At her cousins chuckle of amusement she guessed she'd heard that errant thought. She'd have to remember to guard her own thoughts while she was in town. Normally all she had to worry with was keeping others thoughts out now she needed to remember to keep her own in.

 

Daina would never go into her mind without permission she knew that, it was a matter of being polite with family, but if she wasn't careful with someone else like her around she might start projecting her thoughts in an effort to be heard. It was a problem they had learned to deal with as children, but they hadn't been around each other for a while now so she'd forgotten.

 

"To answer your first question, my parents are out of town and I got bored and figured you wouldn't mind the company being alone like you are. Nice loud broadcasting by the way I heard you all the way in California, Bon Temp to L.A., soon you'll go international darling. The first Saturday it happened I thought about calling you but didn't want to butt in to your domestic difficulties, the second time I thought about coming for a visit but mom dragged me to a pageant, I figured it was a pattern now so I headed your way day before yesterday so I could be here this time. I think you and I need to talk."

 

Not able to meet her cousins eyes she started towards the kitchen calling back to her that this discussion needed tea.

 

Daina was sixteen but thanks to her telepathy she always seemed far older. The last time they'd seen each other had been when Daina had turned eleven. It had been the day after her birthday and she'd told her dad that her mom was thinking about the pool boy again, her mother had gotten angry and told Gran that it was all because the two of them were together so often that the strangeness was catching and that if they took Daina far enough away she'd stop saying such things. The next day they had been gone moved to California, changed their last name and never looked back.

 

Well at least her parents hadn't looked. Two years later when Daina had turned thirteen was the first time they'd _**talked**_ long distance. She had been twenty-two already working for Sam when right in the middle of her shift Daina had popped into her mind for a chat. She'd been impressed and her powers had only grown since.

 

Sookie doubted she even knew half of what her young cousin was capable of and if she was being honest she could admit that she didn't want to know. If Daina had developed any more _afflictions_ that meant that she could as well, and she didn't want that. She just wanted to be normal.

 

"Oh honey, you hear people's thoughts. The normal ship has sailed do yourself a favor and wave bye-bye from the shore and embrace your inner freak. Now let's talk about this inconsiderate bastard your dating shall we."

 

Sookie looked across the table at her cousin trying to shield her thoughts and not show her nerves. She hadn't been this close to another telepath since she was a child and she'd forgotten how overwhelming it could be to continually protect herself. Fighting not to rub her temples she silently begged Daina to say something… anything.

 

"So… this Bill is constantly late, he leaves you alone on date night, and he proclaims you as his in public without even a courtesy question tossed your way. Sorry Sook but why exactly are you with him?"

 

"No! It's not like that," at her cousins disbelieving look she became defensive of the man she loved. "Really Bill's never late, and he's only left me alone a few Saturdays and that's only recently. He only claimed me to protect me, the vampire world is very dangerous." Giving her young cousin a stern look she willed her to change the subject.

 

"So tell me about your first date with Bill. You skipped that part when you were telling me all about him."

 

"Oh, well we…" No one had ever asked her that before. Thinking about it now she couldn't remember ever going on a date with Bill. He'd come to the house once to meet Gran and they'd gone for a walk after, and they'd gone to Fangtasia once or twice but only on business. Sometimes he would sit in Merlottes when she was working and sort of visit in between customers, but again that was work. Why hadn't they really gone out yet? They'd been dating for months now and sleeping together for nearly as long.

 

The strained silence of the room snapped her out of her morose thoughts. Glancing up at her cousin she found her looking at her with exasperation filling her eyes. She'd forgotten to shield and Daina had gotten all of that. Staring down at the table she fought not the blush.

 

Daina simply could not believe it. This Compton guy had in effect turned her bubbly outgoing cousin into a stepford wife. He swanned off to wherever he wanted and she stayed at home playing the part of the dutiful little wifey. The idea of going out and having a good time without him seemed to never cross her mind. The thoughts she'd gotten thrown her way had been jumbled and fragmented but she managed to get the gist of it. Old tight ass had never even taken her out on a date. That just wouldn't do at all. Coming to a decision she gave her cousins bowed head a look of contemplation before she began to smile.

 

"Go get changed."

 

Sookie's head jerked up so fast she was surprised she hadn't done permanent damage.

 

"Get changed? Into what?"

 

"Club clothes, you and I are hitting the town, we are having a good old fashioned girls night. Well not this town of course, since it has nothing really worth hitting. Except maybe Andy Bellfleur but that is something else entirely and I digress. We are going to have fun!"

 

"What?" Sookies confusion nearly broke her heart.

 

"Go! Get! Changed!" As she watched her subdued cousin practically run from the kitchen and up the stairs she indulged in a quiet victory dance. She'd seen a lot in her cousins mind, not only the problem (Bill), but also the solution.

 

"Where are we going?" Sookie tried to quell her nerves by pestering her partner in crime, but it wasn't working.

 

"I told you we're going out, to have fun, you know fun right you do still remember what that is don't you? Would you relax it's not like your stepping out on your marriage. You're going clubbing with friends after being stood up for the third Saturday in a row."

 

"It's just gonna be us though right, no mystery guys popping up half way through the night."

 

"Just us, unless you want more." Daina's leer was enough to make her fight a blush. She let her look speak for its self she was not that kind of girl.

 

"Ahh, come on Sook don't give me that look. You're what twenty-five, you've only ever slept with one guy, and you don't even own slinky club clothes. I think your reputation is safe. All I'm trying to do is remind you that you have other options. Something I think your current honey needs to be reminded of as well. He got your virginity Sookie not your freedom."

 

"He knows that!" She was beginning to feel insulted and hurt by her cousins words.

 

"Does he? Do you? He left you sitting at home alone for not one, not two, but three consecutive Saturdays. During that long stretch of solitude did you ever think about calling Tara, Lafyette, or even Jason and going out on your own? No! Instead you sat at home alone being miserable and why? Because you think you're in a committed relationship." She had been squirming in her seat throughout most of Daina's speech but that last sentence got her blood boiling.

 

"I am in a committed relationship!"

 

"Are you?"

 

Her cousin's even tone gave her pause. It was like her cousin knew something about her life she didn't. That scared her more than anything and like with most people, with fear came anger.

 

"Yes. I. Am." She heard her cousin release such a long drawn out sigh of frustration that she almost took back her words. Almost.

 

"Alright Mrs. Committed, mind if I ask you a few questions?" She didn't wait for a reply before plowing ahead.

 

"How many couples have you known in your life?"

 

"I don't know dozens. Why?" She already didn't like where this was going.

 

"Out of those dozens how many had never been out on a date?"

 

"Well none but…" She wasn't given any time to finish her sentence and defend her relationship.

 

"Out of all those healthy, committed relationships, how many were as one sided as yours?"

 

"One sided!" She felt her fury rise only to be pushed back by Daina's mounting rage.

 

"Yes Sookie, one sided! He knows everything about you, everything! Your family, your friends, your work, your childhood, and even your telepathy. What might I ask do you know about him other than he's a civil war vet turned vampire?"

 

She sat stunned in her seat trying to come up with an answer. What else did she know about Bill?

 

"He had children before he was turned." There that was something.

 

"What were their names? How old were they when he was turned? What happened to them?"

 

The questions were asked so quickly so… logically that her mind stuttered to a halt. Shouldn't she know the answer to just one of those?

 

"You are not in a relationship Sookie. Not really. The only thing holding you back is you. There is one thing you have to ask yourself tonight Sook. Do you want to spend the rest of your life, however long that will be; with Bill thinking you made the right choice for the both of you? Or do you want to see what else is out there. What the world has to offer you and spend the rest of your life knowing you made the right choice for you."

 

She didn't know what to say her thoughts were racing. Her cousin was right, she and Bill didn't have a nice normal committed relationship, but some small part of her mind was screaming at her that doing what Daina wanted her to do would be cheating. And she was not that kind of girl.

 

"Then what kind of girl are you?"

 

Her cousins question jerked her back into the present. Damn. She forgot to shield. Again!

 

"I am a lady." At least she knew the answer to that question. Her answer made her cousin smile at her.

 

"That you are Sook. You're probably the only real 'Lady' I know. One last question before we go. Are you a happy lady? Or just a content one?"

 

"Go?"

 

"Yeah we're here."

 

Here? Glancing up she saw a bright neon sign she was more than familiar with.

****

**Fangtasia.**

  
  


Daina could admit to herself that she was excited. Hell she'd admit it to anyone else too, if they wanted to know. Sookie, however, was so preoccupied with not having a panic attack she wasn't really paying attention to the people around her.

Her telepathy should have compensated for that, working in her subconscious to alert her to danger. That's what should have happened, but the longer she was around her cousin the more she came to understand her. She'd denied her telepathy, tried to act like it wasn't real for so long that she was a little... stunted.

She had enough skill to block but that was about it and at her age she should have been capable of so much more, even without training. As they neared the front of the line she noticed Sookie's stress levels spike even higher. Interesting. Finally they reached the vampire at the door.

"Sookie, we weren't expecting you tonight. Where's Bill?" She could tell from the leathered up blondes tone that she didn't really like Bill. Good, at least she wasn't the only one.

"Bill's not here. My cousin Daina came into town unexpectedly tonight and wanted to go out. Daina this is Pam, Pam this is my cousin Daina."

At the mention of her relation to Sookie the blonde, Pam, gave her a second more through once over. Starting with her feet and lingering on her hips and breasts before stopping at her eyes with a huge fangy grin.

"Pleasure to meet you." The woman’s voice was dripping with innuendo, and hey why not?

Letting her look speak for its self she gave the hottie blondie her own once over that was met with a smirk of understanding and approval. Of course this didn't mean she was definitely hooking up with Pam. Just that it was a possibility. The night was young after all.

Catching her cousins thoughts she found... disapproval. Not at the fact that she thought she was gay, no she was fine with that. She disapproved of Pam. Once they made it inside (her fake ID having passed inspection) she stopped for a minute to take it all in. She'd never been to a vampire bar before, and now that she had, she had to say it was cheesy.

"So what do you think of Fangtasia?"

"It's the vampire ride at Disney!" Her grin grew wider at her cousins burst of uncontrollable laughter. "Think I can meet Eric?"

"How do you..." She just gave her cousin a look that said it all.

"You know that's really annoying." Sookie was getting huffy.

"Now you know how everyone else feels. All I can say is learn to shield better. Now about Eric..."

"Mmmm I heard my name. I hope you were speaking well of me." Turning to meet the owner of the sex voice she'd heard she found the Viking himself. All she could think for several seconds was that Sookie's mental images didn't do him justice. If only... but no Sook had dibs.

"Oh how could anyone speak any other way about you?"

"Give it an hour you'll figure it out."

"Now Sookie don't be rude. Introduce us." She knew that calling her manners into question would do it.

"Daina, Eric. Eric my cousin Daina." She saw his interest peak for a second at hearing they were cousins before he got it back under tight control. Bravo tall blonde and sexy.

"Then I am beyond pleased to meet you."

"Ooooh smoothe and delicious you're just everything a girl could ask for aren't you." She tempered her words with a look that said she wasn't serious. She didn't want him to get the wrong idea. Beside her she felt Sookie's jealousy flare momentarily before it was beaten back by confusion.

"Wait I thought..." She indicated the door and Pam.

"No I'm not one way or the other. I'm equal opportunity girl."

She fought not to laugh as both Eric and Sookie and probably Pam all took that little bit of information in. Some doing so easier than others.

"Now I feel like dancing. Sook, since I know how tired you are after such a long day ( _of doing nothing_ ) so I won't force you to come with me." She gave her cousins shoulder a not so subtle nudge in Eric's direction. The vampire in question sent her a look of utter amusement.

"Daina wait!" Before her cousin could form a coherant and proper protest she was gone, swallowed by the crowd of scantily clad fangbangers and bored vampires. Of course that wasn't the end of the argument. God she loved telepathy.

_"Where are you going?"_

_"Dancing, didn't I say that?"_

_"Daina."_

_"I could have sworn I told you."_

_"Daina!"_

_"Sookie! Oh come on Sook, just give the guy a shot. Maybe even get some advice, he's freaking ancient, you know he knows stuff."_

_"I am not discussing my relationship with Eric Northman!"_

_"Sook, you got two options. One you can have an open mind, check your preconceptions at the door, and give this a proper shot. Or two, I could become that embarrassing relative that breaks out the childhood stories you never want known every time your within ten feet of a hottie. Starting with this one. Before you answer I got one thing to say to you. Mittens!"_

_"Fine, fine, no need to get nasty. I'll talk to him okay."_

_"With an open mind?"_

_"With an open mind."_

_"That's all I ask."_

_"Yeah right."_

Sookie looked over at Eric. During her argument with Daina he'd moved them to his dais. Taking a deep breathe she prepared to give this exactly the amount of attention it deserved.

_"That's not what we agreed."_

_"Shut up and mind your own business!"_

"Your cousin seems interesting." It took her a moment to realize that had come from Eric.

"Yeah she is. This is the first time I've seen her since we were kids."

"What brings her here?" Eric the badass was making small talk. She didn't know how to react to that. She had promised to give it a good try with him and everything Daina had said about her relationship with Bill still echoed in her mind. Honesty was the least she could offer.

_"The very least!"_

_"Shhh!"_

"She showed up because Bill's been MIA lately and this is her none too subtle opinion of him and our relationship."

"Really?"

Eric looked out into the crowd and watched Sookie's so different cousin dance with several of his vampires. If what Sookie said was true then this girl was trying to push Sookie in his direction. If she could succeed where he had thus far failed he would owe her more than he could ever repay.

Sookie had gotten under his skin from their first meeting. Her steadfast refusal to leave Bill for him had baffled more than just him. Maybe everyone involved had simply gone about it the wrong way. This Daina had already gotten farther than most, she'd gotten Sookie to actually speak to him without Bill, and it would seem without his shadow looming over the entire conversation.

"Do you know how long she will be visiting?" How long would he have her help?

"I have no idea. Daina pretty much does whatever she wants, she follows her own rules. She could be here just for the night or she could stay for six months. It all depends on how interested she is in what's happening around her."

He silently hoped that she found her cousins future happiness very interesting.

Daina had been dancing with the same vampire for what seemed like hours now, going back and forth in her mind about if she should seal the deal with him or not. She'd never been with a vampire before, and she was always up for trying something new, she just didn't know if this was who she wanted to try it with.

Normally when she came across something she hadn't tried before, Werewolf, other Fae, humans with different kinks, she'd just hop on with the first marginally attractive one she met who was equally interested. For some reason though when it came to vampires she'd been holding back for a few years now, ever since they came out of the coffin so to speak, and she couldn't figure out why. It was almost like she was waiting for something, or someone, specific.

Shrugging it off for now she just continued to dance while Sookie had her little conversation with her hot piece of Viking goodness. Whatever it was she was waiting for she was certain it wouldn't be long now before she found it she was starting to get that itch again, the one that said that big changes were coming.

Until then she was sure she could find someone, not of the undead, who was both attractive and interested in what she had to offer. She was a Stackhouse after all and rejection wasn't really something they dealt with often, but for now even if she wasn't going to sleep with tall, dead, and delicious she could still dance with him, he had all the right moves after all.

  
  



	2. Do Me a Favor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eric needs Sookie's help but doesn't know how to ask for it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for any formatting errors I missed, AO3 would only let me use HTML and I've never done that before so this was the best I could do.
> 
> Hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Love me some sassy Daina!

[](http://s1063.photobucket.com/user/kasey19391/media/Chapter%20art/What%20about%20now/Chapter%202.jpg.html)

  
  


Eric stared at his phone, and for the first time in his considerable life-span he felt nervous. He had received news from Dallas that his maker was missing. When he reached out to him through their bond he felt no immediate distress, but he also couldn’t find him. He knew he needed to go to Dallas, and since the Fellowship was rumored to be involved he hoped to bring Sookie with him as well. The nerves came in while he contemplated how exactly to ask for her aide. 

He could text her but he doubted he would be able to convey his need accurately that way. Not to mention that this particular situation could not be properly condensed into such a short burst of communication. Plus he had no way of knowing for a fact that Sookie would even read any messages that he sent to her. Normally that would be fine, but this was too important to leave such things to chance.

His second option would be to call her, however, he had come to learn that much of Sookie’s conversations were conveyed using her expressions. A phone conversation ran the risk of miscommunications and misunderstandings. Something he could ill afford.

His final option would be to go see her and discuss the matter face to face. Then he would run the risk of her refusing to hear him out at all, but that option had the added benefit of having her cousin there who seemed to be a bit more open minded and would likely take his side in this. 

Decision made he got up to leave his office. He hoped that Sookie’s cousin would intercede on his behalf and help him gain the help he needed to find Godric.

Bill climbed the steps to Sookie’s door and raised his hand to knock. He detested having to ask for entrance to see his Sookie, but he knew that she would not react favorably if he simply walked in without announcing himself. Hopefully soon that would all change. When the door opened he was shocked to find not his lover, but some unknown woman, looking at him inquisitively as though he were the one out of place.

“Yes?” Her inquiry helped him to shake off his confusion and he set his features to convey his displeasure which never failed to gain him what he wanted from humans. Until now, apparently.

“I am here to see Sookie.” He did not ask her name or her reason for being in his lovers home for then he would be admitting that he did not already know the answer which was beyond unacceptable.

“Well, of course you’re here to see Sookie this is her house after all. The question remains though, who are you? While you’re at it how ‘bout telling me why you want to see Sookie.” Looking in the young woman’s eyes he got the infuriating impression he was being played with. That she knew exactly who he was and was just being contrary.

As he opened his mouth to put her in her place a sound from behind him caused him to turn from her, to find none other than his Sheriff standing on his lovers front steps. Just before he could demand an explanation a squeal sounded from behind him, the woman seemed to be dancing in place.

“Eric! Hey what up dude?” Without giving the Sheriff a chance to answer she turned back to Bill and shoved at his chest with her hand, he presumed to get his attention.

“See! Him I know.” How did this infuriating woman know Eric? Well, knowing the raunchy swede there was one way that came to mind immediately. He was having difficulty suppressing his smile, but then Northman’s words took care of that problem.

“I am here to speak with Sookie.”

“Sure thing, darling. Sookie! Eric’s here! Oh, and some other dude is here too. But mainly Eric!” Just as he was about to make his feelings about the woman’s behavior known, his lover came into view. She scanned all three people, never lingering on any one person, before turning to the woman.

“Daina! You know who Bill is!”

“I do not! You have no pictures of him and I’ve never met him even though I’ve been here two whole days. How could I know for a fact this was Bill just from your description, huh? For all I know he could be a serial killer.” The look she gave him told him she was reprimanding him for his absence, of all the nerve.

“Daina.”

“Stalker.”

“Daina.”

“Your accountant.”

“Daina!”

“Incompetent boyfriend who forgot where you lived.”

“Daina! enough already.” By now his lover was laughing so hard she had to hold her sides and lean against the doorway to keep herself upright, even Northman was grinning with amusement. He on the other hand was far from amused.

“Never mind that now! You go talk to Hottie McHotterson and the undead accountant and I will get to know each other now. Since this is the first I’ve seen of him.” With that the woman shoved his lover, none to gently, towards the Viking who was watching the entire interaction as though he were used to such displays. 

As he watched his Sookie walk away he realized he had said not one word to her, and she had not said any to him. Turning to face the woman responsible to vent his anger he found the doorway vacant. She had walked away!

Sookie followed Eric out to the cemetery. Spooky choice of meeting place, but out of all the options, definitely the most private. 

“Why are you here?” Not the most polite start, but to the point at least.

“I have come to ask for your assistance.”

_“Say yes!” ___

_“Daina!” _Sometimes having a disembodied voice float through your mind was very disconcerting. She was glad Daina couldn’t do that to anyone else. She’d drive the poor bastards mad.__

_“What? Also I totally heard that and just so you know I’m mentally sticking my tongue out at you. Maybe physically too with the way your dull tax attorney is looking at me, it's so hard to keep track sometimes.” ___

_“This is a private conversation! Aren’t you talking to Bill anyway?” _Why couldn’t her cousin ever just butt out when she was talking to Eric? If anyone else was asking for her help she’d leave it all up to her, maybe throw her two cents in if she was asked maybe, but with Eric she seemed determined to be a part of every decision.__

_“What like that would take all my concentration, please, how dare you insult me. Again, heard that you really should shield better, and the reason I need to be a part of every decision is so that you don’t keep making the wrong ones. Now, say yes!” ___

_“No!” _She did not make the wrong decisions! Did she?__

_“Then what are you going to say?” ___

“What do you need my help with?” Thankfully vampires were fine with long pauses, or this conversation could get awkward. After all she was holding two at once and that at times got confusing and the person physically with her could be ignored sometimes for minutes at a time.

_“Well, okay, if you want to be all grown up and responsible about it.” _Her tone left no doubt what she thought of that option.__

“Someone I… know has gone missing I’m here to request your aide in finding him.”

_“Say yes!” ___

_“No!” ___

_“What do you mean no? How can you say no?” ___

_“I’m not saying no! I’m just not saying yes.” _Daina herself had just accused her of making bad decisions she would not make another one just because she rushed into something.__

_“Well, thank goodness you cleared that up otherwise I would be completely lost while I eavesdropped and followed this conversation.” ___

“Why do you need my help?” She made sure to emphasize the MY so her meaning would be clear. What could a telepath do?

“It is believed he may have been taken by the Fellowship of the Sun.” Was the only response she got and really the only one she needed.

_“Awww! Say yes! Or so help me I will kick your puppy so you’ll know how he’s obviously feeling right now. He totally has the please don’t kick my puppy again face.” ___

_“I don’t have a puppy.” _Best to just play dumb and try to throw Daina off-track. It actually might work with her attention span.__

_“I was being metaphorical it doesn’t have to be a… you know what don’t even get me started you knew what I meant just like I know what you’re doing now. I will not be distracted by the shiney thing flying through the air so stop waving it around! Say, yes!” ___

_“Okay!” ___

_“Finally! You know we could have avoided this whole conversation had you just said yes at the start like I told you to, but oh no not you! You had to get all the information and actually think about it! If it’s not immediately clear I am mocking you in my mind, and again maybe out loud with the way the dead guy keeps staring at me like I should be committed.” ___

_“Go away already! I have a conversation to finish preferably on my own!” ___

_“Fine, fine, fine! Be that way! Greedy, selfish, Viking hogging, mind reading, pain in my backside!” ___

With that Sookie felt Daina retreat from her mind. She knew the girl did it on purpose. If Daina didn’t want you to know she was there, you wouldn’t know, so she was obviously making a point. She’d make time later to ask her what it was. For now she had plans to make.

“Alright, anything else I need to know?” While knowing the Fellowship was involved was a lot, she knew there must be more or he wouldn't look so nervous about asking her to help him.

“He was taken in Dallas so we would need to go there.” There it was, the other shoe. He didn't think she would agree to go to Texas in order to help him. To be fair a few days ago, pre-Daina, he would have been right. Now though, she couldn't get what her cousin said out of her mind, he did look a bit like someone had kicked his puppy. Or in actuality, like someone had stolen his friend away.

“When?” She would have to talk to Sam, pack for an extended trip, so much to do with what she was guessing would be not a lot of time to do it in.

“As soon as possible.”

“Tomorrow, soon enough?” If she tried to push it any later she just knew that Daina would do an end run around her and they'd end up going tomorrow anyhow, so she might as well just bite the bullet and suggest it herself.

“Yes, of course, thank you Sookie.” His gratitude seemed genuine and as far as she could tell he was being completely honest with her so she found a genuine smile tugging at her lips instead of her usual strained Crazy Sookie grin.

“No problem.” This way she could subtley send Daina back towards her home while she was helping Eric. It was win win for her.

_"That hurts me it really does, if you keep this up I might start to think you don't like me oh dear cousin of mine." ___

_"Shut up! You can be really annoying sometimes you know that?" _But she sent her a mental hug to soften her words, it wasn't that she didn't love her cousin, she did. It was just that they seemed to love each other more the greater the physical distance between them.__

_"Fine then, it's homeward bound for me, I'll just help you with your little vampire problem first, cause I obviously love you more than you love me, but that's alright I'll be the invested one in this relationship I don't mind. But I swear if the words it's not you it's me come out of your mouth blondie you and I will have problems." ___

Daina's laughter echoed in her mind long after her cousin actually stopped talking to her but she didn't mind. She knew Daina would understand and she was right.

On the way back to her house Sookie tried to figure out why she agreed to help him. Besides Daina’s constant bitching in her mind to say yes, she’d come to that decision all on her own as well. 

She didn’t have to wonder long, Daina had pointed it out but she’d seen it even before then, the look in his eyes when he’d spoken of this person was so full of pain and heartache. Emotions she knew all too well, she knew then, as apparently Daina had from the start that there had been no other answer but yes. Because the moment the word left her mouth for just a second all that pain disappeared and was replaced by hope like she’d thrown him a lifeline he wasn’t sure he would have when they started their little talk.

Daina stood opposite Bill listening in on Sookie, since she was sure as hell not listening to Bill. Letting her eyes roam over the man who held her cousins heart, she just didn’t see it. Not that looks were everything, they weren’t, though they did help on occasion. 

It was just Bill looked like… a wife beater. Many would argue that there was no specific look to an abuser and that would be because they’ve never spent time with one.  
Yes, not every beater fit the look but in her experience everyone who fit the look was a beater.

She watched his face as he ranted at her in a condescending tone about her place in his relationship with Sookie, i.e. she didn’t have one. The tone of voice was designed to make the listener feel both contrite for what they had done, and stupid for doing it in the first place, but ultimately forgiven for their misstep since it was clear they hadn’t the brains to know better. 

His eyes were pinched as though he was willing them not to narrow, she guessed because he noticed her inattention and was trying and failing ,as per his usual she guessed, to hide his true emotions on the subject. 

His mouth was set in a grim line of distaste, most likely meant to make her fear his displeasure and quake in her boots, but only served to make her wonder how her cousin could ever kiss him. Just the thought made her want to barf. 

Then there were his clothes. Seriously, did he not know how to roll with the times? He look like he was at least a half a century behind everyone else. She'd seen some vamps keeping a death grip on their “look” from their pre-dead days, but this was ridiculous.

Poor fashion and poor manners aside it was his hands that held her attention the most. His fists kept flexing, like he was having to forcefully remind himself not to hit her to gain her undivided attention. Yes, he was definitely up to no good. 

She watched his entire body relax and his face turn into what could pass for easygoing at a glance. He must have heard Sookie making her was back to the house, now the fun would truly begin. She wondered how Billy boy would take the news that his girlfriend had made plans to leave town without talking to him, gaining his permission first?

Bill wanted more than anything to shake the woman, whose full name he still didn’t know and he refused to call her by her given name because that would imply that he actually liked her which he didn't. 

He’d tried to glamour her onto his side, make her support his pursuit of Sookie since she obviously had a great deal of sway over his lover, but found she wasn’t paying him enough attention for him to be able to do so. He’d just been reviewing his options when he heard Sookie approaching the house and Eric taking flight as soon as the door opened. First, he would deal with whatever Northman had wanted, then he would see about this stranger.

“Sookie! Darling, what did Eric want?” He kept his tone light, but concerned, and was frustrated when he saw her reaction of annoyance. 

“He came to ask for my help in finding someone.” His thoughts turned to all the excuses he could make to keep her from agreeing when they discussed it, he was so engrossed in his thoughts he almost missed what came next.

“…tomorrow. I need to call Sam and let him know I’ll need the time off, and I guess I need to book a flight?”

“I think Eric will have taken care of the flight don’t you?”

“You’re probably right but still…”

“I could call Pam and ask if you’d feel better knowing for sure.”

“Would you? Thanks, Daina!”

“Sure not like talking to Eric’s other half is that much of a hardship.”

His lover had already agreed to help without asking him first? She never did anything, especially not anything involving vampires, without asking his opinion first. As he watched Sookie walk up the stairs, presumably to pack for this trip she was speaking of he turned to the other woman, he would have answers damn it!

Daina noticed the moment Bill came back down to earth and realized what was happening around him. If the look on his face was anything to go by he was less than pleased, and more than a little confused, and the small immature part of her soul just did a happy dance at that.

“Goodnight Bill, we have so much to do for our trip tomorrow you should probably just head on home. We’ll call you when we get back and you can stop by again.”

With that she turned to leave the room pausing just long enough to stir him from his outrage and see him out the door. He’d really had no other options if he’d done anything else Sookie would have come down to investigate and it would have all come crashing down on him. When she moved to close the door he gave her such a look of hatred she could only smile. Bring it fang face, your days are numbered and it’s about time you realized that!


	3. Welcome to Dallas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daina and Sookie get to Dallas and crazy starts from the moment they land.

[](http://s1063.photobucket.com/user/kasey19391/media/Chapter%20art/What%20about%20now/Chapter%203.jpg.html)

  
  


Daina sat very still as the plane finally touched down in Dallas trying not to laugh. Sookie was beyond nervous about the flight at first, but after twelve mini bottles of booze she was a lot more relaxed now. Apparently her cousin was very chatty when she had a buzz going.

It turned out Eric had arranged their flight for them on a private plane, there was only her, Sookie, one pilot, and one “flight attendant” which with her telepathy she was beyond grateful for and so was Sookie. 

They had stepped down the five steps from the plane when they landed and moved to wait for Bill and Jessica who had insisted on tagging along even before they knew where they were going or why. She didn't really blame Jessica, the girl had really just tagged along with Bill not really caring where they were going or why as long as she was with her Maker. 

When they saw the limo driver for them while Sookie immediately moved towards the man with an open friendly smile on her face she let herself fall back a step. Her telepathy was sending up warning signs left and right telling her to be cautious and pay attention to really look at the situation. Letting down her shields she touched the man’s mind lightly and found a snarling mass of venom and hatred. Wow, the man had issues. Not letting her own smile of greeting slip in the slightest she quickly sent a warning to her cousin.

_“Danger! Danger! Will Robinson!”_ Sending everything she'd learned from her cursory scan of the mans mind towards her cousin, she was surprised that the other girl was so stunned by it. 

_“Daina!”_

_“What? That was totally justified.”_ How often did you get to use that quote in real life? It was not an opportunity she could pass up, who knew when it would come around again?

_“No it wasn’t! This is serious!”_

_“This is a balding middle aged fat man without a life.”_ It wasn't like they were about to face a ninja, this guy was just plain sad. Honestly, did the Fellowship run low on bad guys to be sending this bottom of the barrel weenie after them or were they just not considered important enough for the top shelf stuff? What exactly was the top shelf stuff for a hate group? Maybe Mr. Hair loss was the best of their best. If so that was just so sad.

_“Daina!”_

_“What! Come on the two of us could take this little pansy bastard with our eyes closed.”_

With that said without a word or even a twitch of warning she lashed out taking the man by surprise sending him crashing to the ground with one blow.

“See told you so.”

Moments later the silence of the hanger was disturbed by Bill slamming out of his travel coffin with a very manly and as usual completely useless display of his skills.

“Oh relax Billy the threat has passed we took care of it all on our own, but uh if you still want to rescue someone Jessica seems to be in serious need of some help.”   
Turning he finally noticed the coffin jumping around like a fish out of water with the baby vamp trapped within pleading for assistance. Observant he was not. While Sookie looked concerned and Bill looked frankly more annoyed than he should have considering he was basically Jessica's vamp daddy she couldn’t keep a straight face.

“This is serious!” He thundered in the face of her laughter.

“I’ll say! You didn’t think to give the poor thing a crash course in travel coffins before loading her up for parts unknown?” Now that's just rude on multiple levels.

_“Daina!”_

_“What? It’s a fair question. How would you feel if the flight attendant hadn’t gone over the safety video with you your first flight? By the way, I’m getting a little annoyed with you continually yelling my name in my head, that’s rude and I for one thought you of all people would behave better.”_ Her tone was beyond miffed but she couldn’t hold back all of her laughter sometimes her cousin was just too funny.

_“Stop it he’s right this is serious. We need to figure this out.”_

_“What’s to figure? The vamps have a traitor we’ll snoop when we meet everyone and go from there. The ‘danger’ is over for now so why are you two still stressing over a minor bump in the road when we haven’t even reached out first pothole yet? Save the panic for when we’re crashing its useless and time consuming now. Not to mention irritating as hell.”_

_“Oh.”_ Damn right oh, did no one see the method to her madness? She always had a reason for the things she did they would save so much time if her cousin would just fall in line and stop questioning all the wrong things.

“We need to find out who this man is working for.” Bill sounded like he was talking to a small child, with a learning disability. How did her cousin not hear that? 

“He works for the Fellowship, duh, but he’s a drone who knows nothing beyond the party line and the specific instructions he was given about Sookie. Trying to talk to him won’t get you anything beyond the I hate vampires broken record.”

“It would still be worth speaking to him. He may know more than you believe.”

That was it she'd had beyond enough of this bullshit. Poking Bill in the chest to make sure she had his undivided attention she let it all fly. Biting her tongue had never really been her style anyway, far too passive.

“You, do whatever you think you need to in order to make yourself feel useful and needed, even though you’re really not. **We** are going to take the limo, that’s just sitting here, and go to the hotel and get settled before the meeting. Let baby vamp out of her box and come find us when you’re done.” Spinning around she marched towards her ride honestly not really caring if her cousin followed in that moment or not.

The meeting with the Dallas vamps was going about as well as expected. The vamps didn't think Sookie had anything useful to contribute and Stan the man was more kill first ask questions... wait what questions. It would have been kind of adorable if he wasn't such a bastard in all other aspects of his personality. 

When they'd informed them that they had a leak in their organization, god they sounded like the mafia, the vamps had only shrugged it off like it didn't matter that they had like zero control. Only Eric really seemed to grasp the significance of that little nugget of information, which was totally why he was still her favorite fanger to date, closely followed by Pam of course. 

Daina was getting very sick of it and just wanted to go find her hotel room and lie down until these idiots got their shit together.

Honestly who calls in reinforcements without having a plan first? Or at least an idea that might someday turn into a plan if you closed your eyes and wished really hard, and no kill them all wasn't a plan. No matter how many times Stan insisted that it was.

_"Are we there yet?"_ She knew she sounded like a whiney five year old, but honestly at the momet she was so bored that was kind of what she felt like. 

_"Daina you need to pay attention. And are we where yet? You make no sense sometimes you know that."_

_"Pay attention to what exactly? They have no plan, no verifiable information, and really no clue if the guy their looking for is even really where they think he is. The only thing we're listening to is posturing and kill them all stuck on repeat. Also I make perfect sense all the time it's not my fault if you can't keep up."_

Daina knew she was annoying her cousin but really what else was there to do. If she opened her mouth and tried to talk where the vamps could hear if Billy dear didn't shut her down before the end of the first word then Stan would. Damn it she was bored this was way less entertaining than promised. Hanging with these vamps was like if your parents told you they were going out of town on a trip then at the last minute told you that your babysitter was a nun. So close to being fun you could taste it, then you were cockblocked by an ancient hag. So not fair.

Maybe she could slip out and go party somewhere, there had to be entertainment to be found somewhere, right? The whole city couldn't be this boring could it?

"I'll go. I'll infiltrate the Fellowship. I'll go during the day if they have him I'll hear it. They won't suspect me."

Ladies and gentlemen the entertainment had finally arrived. Unfortunately it was led by stupidity and closely followed by incompetence but hey at least it was finally here.

_"Please tell me that is not your whole plan. Tell me there is more rattling around in that brain of yours and you're just delaying for dramatic effect when you spring the rest of it on everyone."_

She could tell by her cousins thought that that really was the plan. The whole plan and nothing but the plan.

_"You have got to be kidding me. What you plan to just walk in all on your own and say what exactly? Hey can I have the grand tour and I mean everywhere and everyone. Yeah that won't be suspicious at all."_

"Sookie I don't think this is a good idea."

Oh no, she was agreeing with ... Bill. Oh she was gonna be sick she just knew it. Time to regroup and rethink. Sure this plan had some redeeming qualities, somewhere, it had to have something hell anything. She would not agree with Bill, she refused to do something that disgusting. Think brain think, she had to come up with a plan that would give this little half-baked plan a chance at success.

"You know what you're right Bill, it's not a good idea for her to go on her own." She waited a moment for him to gain all of his smug superiority around him like a cloak before continuing, like she said before pause for dramatic effect. "Which is why we'll go, two is always better than one after all, and you know three is even better. Do you guys have anyone from around here that could go with us? That way we have a local for cover if they notice the accent differences 'n all."

"My human, Hugo, can go with you, I will see to it that he is available to you tomorrow." She could tell the Dallas vamps didn't really see the point of this plan, but since they had nothing else to go with they were reluctantly hopping aboard with the rest of us.

"Thank you Isabel." Best to be polite, even though she was basically lending out a human being like he was a cup of sugar instead of a person. One must always mind their manners.

_"Alright so tomorrow we go in there fine. But we'll need to do a little research tonight. Scratch that I'll do the research and I'll let you know what I find alright. There is no way in hell I am getting caught with my pants down around my ankles in hateful redneck central. I've seen Deliverance damn it and that will not be happening to me!"_ Not that she thought things would ever go that bad for them, but she had a point to make and that was the best way she could think to make it.

_"Daina stop worrying everything will be fine. If you're that sure it's a bad idea you don't have to come with, you can just as easily back out as stepped in."_ How dare she! So much for her being all meek and innocent, she had just thrown down the gauntlet like it was nothing at all. Back out, Ha! I say Ha!

_"The fact that you can say that with such confidence when your plan isn't even really a plan so much as a vague idea makes me nervous. Of course I have to come with you, you'd probably die in there without me and we both know it. I am the brains of this ditzy duo after all. Actually I'm the beauty too, so I'm not really sure what you're bringing to the table but don't worry dear I'm sure we'll think of something that will be all yours."_

_"Daina calm down nothing bad is gonna happen to me."_

Of course nothing bad would happen to Sookie she wouldn't allow it to. She would be with her cousin every step of the way if not physically then mentally and she would have several back up plans at the ready long before anyone stepped foot in that hell hole.

She was a firm believer that you are only truly prepared when the back up plan for your back up plans back up plan had a contingency plan attached.

Sookie followed Bill back to their room and tried to keep her nerves steady. It had seemed like such a simple idea when she'd said it during the meeting but then Bill had expressed concern, and then Daina had said she didn't think it was such a good idea. The only difference being that once Daina realized she was set on this idea she changed her tune and decided to help her succeed instead of just telling her every possible way that she could possibly fail or otherwise screw everything up for everyone involved. Bill hadn't budged an inch.

As the door closed behind them she watched Bill walk to the other room and close the door firmly leaving her alone in what was basically the living room. On the way up after Daina had left for her room he'd told her how he didn't want to feed from her tonight so that she would be at full strength. At the time she'd thought it was very sweet and thoughtful of him, but that was when she thought he was just going to drink a couple bottles of true blood instead. Now she knew he was going to order **room service**.

Not ten minutes later a knock on the door and a quick mental check told her that Daina had come to see her and was very excited about something. Opening the door she stepped back to let her in trying to puzzle out exactly what had her so thrilled but she couldn't get any clear thoughts. She wished the same could be said of Bill's meal for the night.

"Sook, so I was researching the fellowship of bigots, right, like I promised. Well not the actual Fellowship so much as the building they're housed in and not so much researching myself as much as you know getting other far smarter people who owe me favors to do it for me so that I can take the credit, though now that I've confessed and told you about them I guess that part of the plan is shot, but still you won't believe what they found out there's..."

Daina's revelation was cut off by the sound of a moan from the other room. Her too intelligent eyes scanned her face and finally narrowed in anger, but her voice was soft and caring when she spoke.

"If you tell me that's just Jessica finally getting lucky I swear I'll believe you."

That was the final straw. It was bad enough having to sit here and listen to that tramps thoughts how good it felt being with Bill, but to have Daina know about it too. She just couldn't take it, she broke down and started to cry.

"Oh honey no, no tears, this isn't worth tears. This is worth a kick somewhere he won't soon forget but that's all. You know what? I have an idea, come on you're coming with me."

With that Daina grabbed her hand and practically dragged her out of the hotel and towards Bill's rented sedan. Where the hell were they going?


	4. Girls Night

[](http://s1063.photobucket.com/user/kasey19391/media/Chapter%20art/What%20about%20now/Chapter%204.jpg.html)

  
  


Sookie looked up at the sign over the door of the club her cousin had dragged her to, The Pulse, it looked nothing like Fangtasia and even seemed to be going out of its way to be the anti-vamp bar and that made her even more nervous about it. 

She really wasn't in the mood to party, not that her cousin seemed to be listening to her about that. When they made it to the door, the bouncers reached for their wrists and held them for a moment before stamping their hands. What the hell? Looking to her cousin for an explanation she finally got one, but that only made her wish she had asked sooner.

_"This is sort of the Fellowships answer to places like Fangtasia, the name is really very literal, you have to have a pulse to enter. You said you didn't want to party, and I know you didn't want to stay there with Bill and his very own Jenny Craig, so I figured you could come on recon with me."_

_"What the hell are we doing here?"_ This was not the type of place she ever wanted to come to, places that excluded entire races tended to be all around bad for one reason or another.

_"I already told you we're doing recon, none of the Dallas vamps even know if Godric was even really taken by the fellowship so tomorrow may be a complete waste of time. So instead of walking in blind I decided to come here, honestly it was ridiculously easy to find out about this place, for a sorta-super-secret-society they aren't really all that stealthy. This is where most of the Fellowship comes to unwind at the end of the day, secure in the knowledge that they're surrounded only by their own flesh and blood kind. Mainly the senior staff, while the juniors are left doing grunt work as usual, if anyone knows about a vamp snatch it'll be one of the people here tonight. So just relax have a drink and listen."_

_"What do we do after we listen?"_ It wasn't like they could just walk up to the Fellowship door and demand they give Godric back, even if they did know for a fact that they had him.

_"Well, that all depends on what we hear doesn't it?"_

Dropping her shields slowly she found it was a lot easier and far less painful than it usually was to listen in. Maybe she was getting better at this.

Daina watched her cousin smile and had to fight to not shake her head, she was softening the harsh onslaught for her cousin and she wasn't even noticing, she was seriously behind where she should be with her gift. Normally she wouldn't partially shield for another telepath, she was all about people making their own way in the world, but after everything else today her cousin really did need to feel useful, and like she was significantly contributing. Closing her own eyes for a moment she start to shift through and listen. 

She sort of set her telepathy on word search mode, it would all stay in the back of her mind like white noise unless certain words were mentioned then it would surge to the surface again.

"So Sook, should we talk about what happened back at the hotel?" She knew it was a sore subject but they couldn't just let it fester that wasn't healthy.

"There's nothing to talk about." Forceful, good a backbone would serve her well in the coming days, but not right now, she was too persistent for that. 

"The hell there isn't, that little prick just cheated on you while you were in the other room waiting for him." How shitty was that? He could have at least gone down to the lobby for his snack instead of ordering in.

"He wasn't cheating, he was -" She paused for a moment remembering where they were before continuing, "you know what he was doing."

"Yeah, I know exactly what he was doing it's you who seems to be confusing the issue." Then again things with Bill seemed to confuse her cousin more often than not. She wasn't completely sure what it was about Bill-y boy, but something wasn't right about this whole relationship.

_Stupid goddamn vampires, don't know why we can't just kill them all now, why we gotta wait?_

When it looked like her cousin was going to respond to her comment she held up a hand and tilted her head slightly to show she was already listening it was the universal telepath sign to please wait a moment.

_Don't see what this damn dog and pony show's gonna do anyway, sure roasting a vamp on t.v. at dawn sounds nice and all but honestly he'd prefer to just stake the bastard in his cage. He loved the feel of vamp blood on his hands and watching them just implode was beyond satisfying, far better than killing a human that just lays there after they're gone. He didn't care how big and bad this vamp was, it could die just as easily as all the rest had, vampire Sheriff or not._

There it was a mention of Godric, so they did have him, unless he was thinking about some other Sheriff from another state but she doubted it. The reason she hadn't heard his name was probably because the prick hadn't bothered to learn it.

Tracking the thoughts back to the source she found a older man, over middle age probably in his late forties or early fifties, balding, with a bit of a gut now. Though she could tell he was in fairly good shape and had probably always been so, he looked sort of military in his stance, but from his thoughts she doubted he actually had been in the actual military or if he had been he'd probably washed out early on. Most likely para-military, which explained why he was hooked up with the Fellowship of the Sun. 

Glancing down she saw the ring that signaled him as a member and given his personality and his age he was more than likely a senior part of the staff, he would accept nothing less, not with his ego. Now they just needed to get a little closer and get his mind on the right things, and maybe if possible plant a little seed in his mind that could help them tomorrow if they needed it.

"Sook, real casual look over towards the bar, see the older balding guy in the blue sweatshirt?" She watched her cousins casual bored room scan with barely contained pride, that's her girl, they really were related after all.

"Yeah?" Sounds like Sook was as equally unimpressed as she was with little soldier boy over there.

"He's who we're here for, now here's the plan. First I'm gonna stand up and stretch a little, see how he reacts to it, then if I tell you I'm gonna want you to do it to, to see how he reacts to you. Then we're gonna walk casual like to the bar, and once we're there we're gonna strike up a conversation about the Fellowship and vampires in general, try to send his mind down the right rabbit hole."

"Then what?" Seriously did she seem like a step by step kind of girl. Honestly!

"We wing it, it really all depends on what happens next. Lets begin."

Standing she stretched her hands over her head high enough to have her shirt ride up a bit flashing her flat stomach to the room, catching everyone's attention as she knew it would, but she was really only interested in one mans reaction.

Damn that was one nice piece of female, too bad no girl like that ever had the time of day for him, not even when he was still in his prime, not that he was over the hill just yet. Oh the things he would do to her with half a chance.

Pervert, no she meant, perfect. This was perfect and slightly disgusting but she could work with it. 

"You stay here Sook, change of plans I'm going over to the bar alone. If one of these guys actually works up the courage to talk to you don't blow them off, we're just two girls out for a girls night, out looking for fun and yada yada remember."

"I got it. What are you gonna do?" Something vaguely disgusting, bordering on skeevy, but hopefully it would work and that's all that matters. She hadn't heard much from his mind yet, but what she had heard hadn't given her much hope for Godrics continued good health.

"I'm gonna chat up a guy at a bar."

Walking over she made sure to squeeze in right next to him at the crowded bar, brushing her breast against his arm as she leaned in to get the bartenders attention.

"Two long island iced teas please."

She looked everywhere but at him at first, making sure to really over look him, almost like he was invisible. When the bartender sat the drinks down right next to his hand, the fellowship fucker was fuming. He did not like to be relegated to the background.

Going to grab the drinks she let her hand brush his making sure to bump his ring looking down 'in shock' at the feel of cold metal against her skin. Looking up she smiled at him before biting her lip to draw even more attention to her mouth, before asking what she already knew.

"I know that symbol on your ring from somewhere, are you like in the army or something, you totally look military."

Stoke to his ego waiting to let it grow a bit along with another part of his anatomy she eventually delivered the other side to her comment.

"My dad was military to, and you look a lot like him." Crush him. She watched his chest almost deflate.

"No, it's a Fellowship of the Sun ring, I'm second in command of the Dallas branch second only to Steve Newlin himself." Go ahead buddy let your pride shine through your reason.

"Steve Newlin I know him, he's that guy on t.v. right?" Playing the dumb blond card was annoying, but effective so she played it up.

She was getting so much from his mind now that he was focused totally on the Fellowship and all it stood for, for him anyway. She saw Steve Newlin, and his wife, and -cousin Jason! What the fucking hell was he doing here in Dallas? At the Fellowship compound of all places.

_"Change of plans Sook we have a slight problem."_ Little more than slight, but no need to cause alarm just yet.

_"What? What happened?"_ Then again alarm was probably inevitable with how tightly wound Sookie was at the moment.

_"Don't freak out, remember where we are, but it turns out Jason is at the Fellowship compound, we have to get him out at the same time that we get the vamp or when they piece it all together they'll kill him Sook."_

_"No! That can't happen!"_ She agreed, not so soon after Gran, the Stackhouse clan wasn't big enough to be losing people in clusters like that.

_"It won't we won't let it, but for right now we need to change things around a bit. We can't wait for morning to go get this guy, we gotta go now when he can move under his own power and we aren't stuck trying to carry him or something equally stupid. I'll get this guy to invite me back there and you'll come with when we get there we'll split up, you'll go find Jason and I'll get the vampire in the basement. You in?"_ She had better be because for the moment this was the only plan they had.

_"I'm in!"_ Good, because while she could do it on her own she really didn't want to.

"So you're like really important huh? Oh my god, have you actually seen any vampires?" She put as much blonde into her voice as she could muster.

"I sure have. Why do you ask?" _Why's someone here want to know about vamps?_

"I've always wanted to see one, but I'm just way to scared to go to one of those 'vamp clubs' they have around here. Oh my god, you've seen one, which means you could like tell me all about it right." She made sure to sound out of breath while exaggerating her breathing just enough to emphasis the rise and fall of her chest.

_Hell if just talking about those blood suckers gets her this excited, wonder what actually seeing one would do._

That's it stupid follow along like a good minion.

"I can do you one better how would you like to see a real vampire, up close and personal."

"Oh, no, that would just be too scary, I'd be libel to just scream my head clean off." She clutched at her heart, as though she was imagining the fear of such an encounter drawing his eyes back to her chest again.

"The vamp I'm talking about he's all locked up, no way he could hurt you, ain't no way ain't no how. Especially not with me right there next to you." She could almost see his.. ah pride begin to swell.

"Well, you are a big strong fellowship guy aren't you. Second in command and all, I bet you ain't afraid a nothing. Sure, I'll go but my friend she gotta come too, I can't just leave her stranded here all on her own." Gestering towards Sookie she made sure to lean in close enough to brush up against him again, this time letting her hardened nipple drag across his arm letting him know two things at once. One she was aroused and two she was braless. That was all it took of course, men were so easy some times.

"Yeah sure, she can come along." He made it sound like such a magnanimous consession. Prick.

"Great, I'll just go get her."

_"We're in Sook, now here's the plan...."_

Daina kept flirting with Gabe the entire ride over with Sookie following along behind in their car, she ran her hands up and down his thigh and turned every conversation into an innuendo about the good times to come between them. By the time they pulled up in the Fellowship parking lot he was as randy and ready as a teenage boy. Sookie had made sure to drop a few cars behind, giving her the perfect excuse to lag back and find Jason.

"Shouldn't we wait for your friend?"

"Nah, she's a big girl, as I'm sure you're a very big boy." Letting her hand lightly stroke him through his cargo pants, she had to fight not to let her revulsion show on her face. This would only work for as long as he believed it. And believe it he did. He thought that tonight all those fantasies of doing the blonde cheerleader captain in school were finally going to come true.

Heading towards the basement door with him she heard Sookie pull into the parking lot and prayed that this whole thing worked, because if it didn't they didn't have a plan B.

Coming slowly down the stairs not wanting to trip on the concrete steps she heard a voice from farther down, likely Godric.

"Be silent not one word."

Good plan she supposed, don't give your captor the satisfaction of hearing you, it was a tactic she knew well. Letting Gabe swing her around again so that he could kiss her she let him back her towards the vampire or rather vampires in question, guy had to be talking to someone right.

Stopping short he pulled away from her and with a bit of a flourish announced their arrival.

"For my lady, vampires just as requested." She could hear the barely restrained sadism and glee in his voice again when he talked about he vampires, he really had some issues.

Looking up she expected to see Godric for the first time, instead she was greeted by the sight of seven different vampires hanging inches off the floor bound to the cage walls. Eric, Bill, Jessica, Stan, Isobel, a female vampire she didn't know, and a male vampire she was assuming was Godric. 

"Wow quite the vampire collection you got going here." Walking over slowly she stood in front of Stan who wasn't looking nearly so smug now as he had been just a few short hours ago at their little meeting where he hadn't even let her speak. "Were they really hard to catch?"

"No, we got ourselves a sure fire vamp catching method that works every time." In his mind she caught the imagine of a woman, who from her eyes and the wind whirling around her she assumed could only be a witch.

"Funny, I thought they'd be scarier somehow." Turning away from the fury in Stans eyes she looked back towards Gabe, this rescue could still work, it just had a few more moving parts is all, time to get down to business.


	5. Vampire Rescue Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daina and Sookie start trying to rescue the vamps

[](http://s1063.photobucket.com/user/kasey19391/media/Chapter%20art/What%20about%20now/Chapter%205.jpg.html)

  
  


Daina knew she had to think fast if she was going to be able to pull this whole thing off without getting anyone, herself especially, hurt. Looking towards the restrained vamps she tried to figure out if any of them would be of any use to her right now. They were all so easy to read really it was kind of sad.

Godric and Eric were both old enough and smart enough to figure she was working an angle, while Godric didn't know her from Eve she figured he was taking his lead from Eric who was calm and collected about her involvement. 

Bill and Jessica were both so adorably confused it was almost funny, he had over a century of experience on her and yet was just as far from figuring out what was happening as she was. 

Stan of course was furious thinking she and Sookie had betrayed them all, as unflattering as the thought was it did make a kind of sense. They show up and then disappear into the night just in time for everyone else to get snatched and then here she stood in their prison obviously unrestrained and as far as they could tell on friendly terms with the enemy.

The woman she didn't know just seemed to be pissed off in general at the situation, which she could understand to some degree but honestly if the woman didn't get that look out of her eyes soon she would have zero problems with leaving her behind. She was definitely one of the bad killer vampire peoples and she was a person she would never let stand behind her if she ever had a choice about it.

Isobel though had them all topped in the anger category. While the others were really just angry or upset about being there she seemed to be furious, angry to an almost homicidal degree. Why? What could have pushed her further over the line than the others? Under that anger seemed to be _hurt_?

Oh well, the emotional well being of the vampires was not one of her current problems she needed to focus on the issues at hand, main one being how to get them all out of there. She'd seen it in Gabe's mind, if they were all still here at dawn the Fellowship was planning to have its self a bit of a vampire bon-fire. 

Not that she understood exactly how they thought they would be able to control not one but seven vampires when the time came, especially when two were over a thousand years old with extra vampire abilities beyond the norm but she was guessing that it had something to do with that witch she saw in Gabe's mind before.

The witch herself was going to be another problem, if she could capture this many vampires at one time it wasn't very likely that she wouldn't be able to sense them on their way out the door. First things first though, how to unchain them, because no one was going anywhere until that happened. She needed some help, luckily she came with back up.

_"Sookie! Stackhouse we have a problem."_

_"What happened? You didn't get caught did you?"_ How dare she say such a thing!

_"Alright, first of all the fact that, that was your first and apparently only guess hurts my feelings it really, really does. How dare you think that I would be so easily caught! Second, the problem isn't with me it's with the situation which had changed dramatically in a way that no one, least of all me, could have seen coming. And C, How dare you think that I would be so easily caught! I know that was part of the first one but it needs repeating."_

_"I'm sorry? What happened?"_ Much better.

_"Since you said you're sorry I'll tell you even if your apology was in question form. Now, don't panic but they have more vampires than we originally thought they did. In fact they have our vampires. Eric, Bill, Jessica, Isobel, Stan, some woman I don't know and a guy I'm assuming is Godric are all down here just chilling waiting for the party at dawn."_

She stood very still making sure not to show any outward sign of the headache that was starting to form while Sookie panicked. It was a long and loud panic, almost a professional panic really.

_"I know you heard me say don't panic! Stop it right now or so help me God I will turn and walk out of here right now and leave them all to die!"_ How did she expect her to get anything done with her screeching echoing inside her skull?

_"You wouldn't."_ Oh how wrong you are cousin of mine.

_"Don't push me woman. I may like some of these people a little bit, but this is not my fight and I would have absolutely zero problems with leaving them here. Am I making myself clear? Good! Now shut up and do exactly as I say because with this many variables this plan has already been blown to hell and we need to move quickly if we're going to have a prayer of any of us getting out of here with our lives."_

Godric watched the woman who was flirting shamelessly with their guard. When she had walked into the room he'd felt the shock of recognition shoot through his Childe's body even though there was no outward sign of it. So Eric knew this girl then, not only knew her but seemed to see her presence as a good thing, most of the others seemed to know her as well. 

It was pure luck that the mans attention was solely on the girls body because if he'd been looking at any of the younger vampires faces at the moment of their arrival he too would have known that she was not the stranger she pretended to be. The younger ones allowed far too much of their inner thoughts to play across their faces.

Focusing on his Childe's inner most emotions towards the girl he found fondness, annoyance, and _hope_. Eric saw the girl as their salvation? Not that either of them had given up on trying to free themselves since their capture, but he seemed to see the girls arrival and misdirection as a step in the right direction. Interesting.

Looking towards the girl herself, he found that while her body and voice seemed to be doing all the right things to keep their jailors attention he saw in her eyes that her mind was a million miles away from their cell and this place. 

It had been clear from the moment of shock that had shown in her eyes upon first stepping foot over the threshold that she had not expected to find them all here, since the others had only arrived barely an hour past he assumed she'd been expecting to find only him within the walls of this holding place. 

Whatever plan she'd had before was likely now either completely useless or needed to be adapted and he found himself fascinated by her ability to do so, it was rare in the youth of this era. He could hardly wait to see her in action. Strangely he seemed to harbor no doubts within himself of her success.

Daina knew that everything was ready, or at least as ready as it was ever going to be. Sookie and Jason were in place, all of them crossing their fingers that this plan would work, and if it didn't work they would wing it until it did. Failure was not an option, she didn't do failure. Sending the signal to Sookie she waited for the fire alarm to sound, she waited for the party to really begin.

Sookie had no idea what the next step was going to be after pulling the alarm or even what the next, next step was going to be. Daina was keeping her and Jason in the dark about the new plan and she was steadily letting Jason know exactly what she thought of that high handedness. 

"What if there ain't no real next step Sook?" Her brothers curious question pulled her out of her rant and back into reality.

"What do you mean?" There had to be a next step it wasn't like they'd evacuate the vampires with everyone else after she pulled the alarm after all.

"I mean from what you done told me the plan y'all came in here with done been shot to shit and now you're just slapping this one together on the spot. Maybe the 'next step' depends on what happens after this step."

Maybe he was right. Maybe Daina wasn't sharing the next step because even she didn't really know what it was yet. Well, if Jason was feeling chatty there were a few things she wanted to know about.

"What is the world are you doing here anyway Jason? You know these people are just all a bunch of fanatical nutjobs right. Hell, if you wanted to join up with people like that you'd have been just as well joining up with the local skin heads back home." Sometimes she just didn't understand what went on in that head of his.

_"Only because you refuse to take a look."_

_"Shut up Daina! I am not invading his privacy like that. He's family."_

_"We'll analyze that statement later, after we're all not dead, for now just pull the alarm. It's time to get this party started."_

"Don't start with me right now Sook, I know I got some explanations to be giving you and everyone else but not right now alright." He sounded so beat down already that she decided to let the issue drop.

"Okay, I'll wait." For now. Reaching over she pulled the handle to sound the fire alarm and watched as the entire building filled with lights and the sound of an electronic voice advising evacuation.

_"Now what Daina?"_ When the answer came she could almost taste the impatience that laced every word.

_"Now you two get down here!"_

Oh right, that made sense.

"Come on Jason we gotta get to Daina."

"Alright Sook, lead the way. I'm right behind you."

It took a bit of doing and some really creative suggesting but Daina finally managed to get Gabe to leave her alone down in the basement with the vampires while he went out to see what was going on. After all he was the big strong second in command. Oh boy, was she glad she didn't have to deal with him any more, stroking his ego was a hands on activity she could do without.

Turning back she got to the vamps just as the door leading towards the main level closed behind his inflated backside.

"Okay here's how this is gonna go, we didn't really plan on having to rescue this many of you so we're sort of just winging it here. Sookie and Jason should be down here any minute now and we've got about five minutes after that before everyone else realizes that this whole thing is a false alarm, they give the all clear, and we're all caught. I got the key off of good times Gabe back there but even with it having to unlock two locks per each of you and there being seven of you this is so gonna be cutting it close to the wire. Eric and Godric are the oldest so I'm gonna undo them first, then I'll just work my way down the line first person to try to attack me gets left behind. We all clear? Good, let's get started."

"How did you manage to get the key?" Yes Bill, because that is the most pressing bit of information at the moment.

"What, did you think I kept feeling up Gabe's shorts because I wanted to see the surprise inside? I picked his pocket, duh." Such a waste of, well everything.

"Wait so you didn't turn against us?" Since it was Jessica who asked she supposed she could go ahead and answer her. If it had come from Bill or one of the older vamps she would have just ignored them on principle. If you're that old and still don't have the brain power necessary to puzzle something like this out then you deserve to be left in the dark.

"No, we didn't turn against you. After Billy boy over there ordered himself some room service in the form of a shapely redhead who moans like a pornstar, Sookie and I went out for the night. We went to the Fellowship bar here in town to try and find out for sure one way or the other if Godric was really here, because I so hate wasting my time looking for things that aren't really there to find. While we were there we did find out that he was here but we also found out that our cousin Jason was hanging around here and we didn't want him catching the heat for us letting the nice vampire man escape. So we decided all spur of the moment like to come here tonight so we could get Jason out and at the same time free the one vampire we thought we needed to rescue when he was able to just walk out the door under his own power and we wouldn't be stuck trying to carry a heavy coffin past security. The rest of you were a bit of a surprise, but I'm very flexible and now we're doing things this way."

By the end of her little explanation Sookie and Jason had finally showed up to lend a hand. She handed Sookie the key, while Jason found a discarded prybar and she got to work with her lock picks. Hopefully they could get this all done before the alarm shut off and they were back in the hot water they'd just barely gotten out of before.

"What was Jason even doing here?" Wow, baby vamp had to be one of the most annoying creatures she'd ever met. She was suddenly beyond glad that she was going home after this little adventure.

"Well, you'd have to ask him what the original plan was for coming here but from what I've _heard_ in reality he was mostly just doing the Reverand's wife."

"Daina!" What? That was hilarious and was just begging to be shared with the group. It was definitely a moral booster.

"In the church no less."

"Jason! How could you?" Sookie sounded so scandalized she just wanted to laugh.

"Oh, don't be so hard on him Sook, she started the whole thing. He was behaving himself, trying to be a good boy, keeping his pants firmly zipped for the first time in forever when suddenly there was a hand grabbing hold of him out of nowhere. Believe me when that happens you just shrug your shoulders and go 'why not'. Trust me on that one."

Sookie was looking back and forth between her and Jason like she didn't know who to be more angry with. Eric on the other hand was looking distinctly amused and even seemed to have that male look of agreement in his eyes. The one that just seems to scream "What else was he supposed to do but jump her if she was asking for it so bad?" She was in complete agreement, it takes two to commit adultery after all.

"Stop being so pious Sook, you know us better than that. Now we need to get this done!"

No sooner had the words left her mouth than the lights and alarms stopped. Looking up and down the line she saw that while Eric and Godric where nearly completely out all of the others were still either mostly or still completely restrained. So much for that plan time to move on to plan B. 

"Well, I guess it's time for plan B."

"Daina, this was plan B."

"Alright then, plan C, honestly Sookie now is not really the time to be criticizing plan names."

"Sorry, what's plan C?"

"I'll tell you as soon as I've thought of it."

Hearing the door to the basement begin to open she caught the thoughts of Gabe and he wasn't alone both Newlins were coming with him to check on their "guests". More than that though, right on their heels like a faithful puppy came the reason for Isobel's anger and hurt feelings, it was Hugo her "pet human" she'd intended to loan out for this super secret rescue mission. The Dallas vamps had been betrayed and now they were all so screwed.


	6. Vampire Rescue Part 2

[](http://s1063.photobucket.com/user/kasey19391/media/Chapter%20art/What%20about%20now/Chapter%206.jpg.html)

  
  


Daina took a deep breath and decided on a plan, sort of, well it was at least more of a plan than what she started with so she felt just fine with calling it a plan now. Turning back towards the room she ran up to stand between Jason and Sookie and explain what was about to happen.

"Okay, Sookie you're gonna stay here and get these vamps down. Eric and Godric first, I swear if I find out you let Bill go before the two who can actually help save our bacon I will kill you myself. Jason you're coming with me." Sookie gave her a look that screamed how insulted she was at the suggestion, but come on now it's not like the thought never crossed her mind to save her honey first.

"Well, alright, what're we doing?" Good old Jason, always willing to lend a hand even when he didn't have a clue.

"Something we'll likely go to hell for."

"Okay." Oh, she could feel the favorite cousin status starting to shift. He didn't really have much in the way of brains but at least he embraced it.

"Just follow my lead and hopefully before this goes too far we'll have two big strong vamps backing us up and keeping us from getting killed." Fingers crossed.  
She waited until Steve Newlin was on the last step before she got started. She came running out towards them with Jason just behind her.

"Jason, I can't believe you would do something like this! Didn't you learn anything growing up? Mr. Newlin, hi there, I'm Jason's cousin and I just want to apologize on behalf of my family. Honestly it was never our intention to raise such a low down dirty hound dog, but these things do happen. I'm just sorry that it had to happen to you. Here you are trying to give no future Jason here a purpose in life, you invite him into your home, and this is the thanks you get." 

By now Jason had caught on to what she was doing and she could feel his resolve to play along strengthen. He might not retain much in the way of book learning and the like but when it came to people he had the Stackhouse gift for pushing their buttons.

"Now damn it woman you just hush up about this. It ain't none of your concern what I do. I'm a grown ass man."

She could tell their little audience was beyond confused, except for Sara who was now beyond scared. She knew what they were talking about and while she'd been planning to tell Steve about her and Jason all along so that she and Jason could be together this really wasn't how she wanted it to go. She wanted him told in private where she could still save face not here out in the open where everyone would know her sin.

"Grown man my ass, you're nothing but a spoiled little boy always wanting the new shiny toy." Still nothing from Stevie boy, looks like Jason ain't the only one here without a whole heap of smarts. Maybe if she was a bit more direct the lights would come on. "Even if the toy is married to someone as good and wonderful as Mr. Newlin here."

Finally! Steve looked to Sara for her to deny what was being implied and when she did nothing but avoid his eyes he knew it was true. Just like that they were off. Every one of them was yelling at someone for something. Edging closer to Jason she started moving both of them back away from the group as she felt the two newly freed vampires getting closer.

Just as it looked like Steve was about to come off the steps and after Jason they all heard Gabe give a deep moan of pain. Like they were all attached by a string every head in the room snapped to the side to see what was wrong and what they saw stunned them all. 

There at the bottom of the stairs against the wall stood Gabe with a vampires hand in his chest grasping his heart. About a dozen thoughts flew through her mind at the sight but the only two that stuck for more than a fraction of a second were Ewww and Awesome! 

Slowly the hand began to draw back out of the chest until it was holding up the mans heart that had been pulled free, they all stood frozen and watched in sick fascination as Eric brought the now severed heart up to his mouth and sucked on one of the ventricles like a straw in a juicebox.

That action was what sent everyone into a screaming frenzy for the door, the door that Godric was blocking. Deciding she and Jason really weren't needed for this part she dragged him towards the back where Sookie and the rest of the vampires were, she didn't trust that female vampire enough to leave her cousin alone with her.  
Sookie had gotten Eric and Godric down now, and watched them speed away to help her brother and cousin deal with the people they were stalling a few feet away. While logic said to just continue down the line and free Isobel next, she just couldn't do it, she had to free Bill.

"Don't worry darling I'll have you down in no time at all." 

She didn't know why she cared so much what happened to him, especially after what he did feeding off that girl back at the hotel, but he just looked so weak and adorable hanging there her heart went out to him. When she'd gotten him down she went to Jessica next intending to free her as well, when he stopped her.

"Sookie free Lorena next."

What? Who the hell was Lorena? And why in the heck would she free her over Jessica?

"Why?"

"Because she is older than the others and she would be able to better protect us all should one of the humans get past Godric or Eric."

Oh well she supposed that made sense and he looked so earnest when he said it, almost like he was pleading with her to agree with him. Why wouldn't she agree with him?

"Okay."

She was just freeing the last lock when something moved in the corner of her eye and she was about to turn to see what it was when the woman "Lorena" lashed out with one hand and grabbed her by the throat. What the hell?

Daina and Jason entered the little caged area just in time to see the woman grab Sookie by the neck and Bill just stand there doing nothing, wringing his hands like an old woman. When he noticed both of them standing there, seeing what he was doing, only then did he spring into action. 

Unfortunately his actions like everything else about him were well below average. The other vampire, obviously older and stronger than him, easily tossed him back leaving him looking a little dazed and confused almost like the action wasn't part of some plan he had. Oh boy.

"Hey! Gruesome two-some out there if one of you is done terrorizing the natives could you please get your pale butt in here we have a bit of a grumpy vampire situation!" Jason just gave her a look like he couldn't believe she wasn't charging right in to try and save his sister. Without any kind of weapon against a vampire old enough to toss Billy boy around like a rag doll. Get real.

Besides for both Bill and this woman to be out and mobile Sookie had to have skipped past Isobel, Stan, and poor Jessica to release them both first. So a little karmic retribution wasn't exactly a-miss. If she had just waited and gone down the line like any smart sane person would have done by the time psycho lady was out and about there would have been three other vampires besides the ever useless Bill able to help them out of this new mess. 

_"Daina what are you doing?"_

_"Waiting for back-up. Or did you think that watching me get tossed aside as easily as your loving beau would somehow make this all better?"_

When no response came to that she just shrugged her shoulders, of course there was no response she was right.

"Let her go!" This from Godric, the original snatched vampire. He didn't even bother coming back into their little section of the room he just shouted his command and expected his disembodied voice to be obeyed. Which turned out to be a reasonable assumption since that's exactly what happened. 

With no one else in immediate mortal danger they were finally able to get the rest of the vampires freed, with one eye on psycho bitch at all times of course.  
Just as things were starting to look up she turned to find the witch from everyone's memories standing at the foot of the stairs staring at all of them with an impressive amount of hatred in her eyes. Whoa, they were in tr-ou-ble.

"Ah, hell."

 _"Who is that?"_ Yes, because that is the most important question to be asking right this second.

 _"That my darling cousin is the witch who helped to catch all the vampires. Without her none of this would have been possible, let's give her a round of applause."_ If you're not laughing you're crying and she refused to cry in front of all these people.

 _"Darn it Daina, can't you be serious for five seconds this is important."_ Oh, no she didn't just say that.

_"Yes it is, thank you so much for pointing that out. I don't think I ever would have figured out just how important this whole situation was or just how completely screwed we all were without you standing here next to me all but shouting it in my mind. What I would like to know is when you decided that I was so completely lacking in intelligence. Have you always felt I was a brainless buffoon or is this a new point of view for you?"_

_"Daina I didn't-"_ Sookie tried to defend herself, but she was having none of it.

 _"YES YOU DID! Somehow over the last few hours it has entered your mind that I am an idiot though I'm not quite sure what exactly it was that I did that gave you that impression. Ever since you and I hooked back up a few days ago all I have been hearing from you has been you talking to me like Bill talks to you. Like I am a brain damaged invalid incapable of rational thought, and I am tired of it."_ Beyond tired of it. She might not be the smartest person ever, but she'd be damned if anyone made her feel like she was an inch tall. Damn it!

 _"Daina-"_ Again Sookie tried to interrupt, most likely to defend herself and Bill all in one go, but she was just too damn tired to hear it. Any of it.

_"No Sookie! I will get us out of this since you seem hell bent on laying all of the responsibility of this entire mess on my shoulders and then I will go back to my room at the hotel and then maybe if I am feeling generous you, me, and Jason can have ourselves a little family reunion chat."_

Without another word she withdrew from her cousins mind, making sure that the little bitch felt it, and proceeded to shut down her end of things making it impossible for Sookie to open the conversation back up without speaking out loud.

So situation assessment. There was a very brassed off witch of indeterminate power standing between them and freedom. Godric and Eric hadn't popped back up in the few minutes they were having their stand off which meant one of three things. Either they were dead, incapacitated, or they had left them all behind in the commotion and high tailed it back to safety all on their own. She was standing in a small caged off section of a concrete basement sandwiched between one unstable vampire, one baby vampire, two pissed off vamps who at the moment seemed either unable or unwilling to move, and her two cousins who were fairly weak in the supernatural department of things.

Wonderful.

Time to move on to plan D or maybe it was plan E now. Damn if she'd known she would have needed this many plans beforehand she would have planned ahead and brought a genius along for the ride or something.

What to do, what to do.

No sooner had a plan begun to form than the witch jumped as though shocked and a bloody hand appeared through her chest holding her heart. 

Well, that worked too she supposed.


	7. Choices Made, Decisions Changed

[](http://s1063.photobucket.com/user/kasey19391/media/Chapter%20art/What%20about%20now/Chapter%207.jpg.html)

  
  


Daina looked around the party that was in full swing, though it was a bit more sedate than most victory parties she'd been to before she thought that was most likely because those were thrown by football players and this one was done by millennium old vampires. Significant differences there.

Glancing around the room she saw everyone who had been involved in the actual 'victory' and quite a few more who were just there to sort of re-up their commitment to Godric. To her it looked more like they were there to make sure that he knew that just because they didn't come through with the rescue that didn't mean they had anything to do with the initial attack like Hugo had. 

Basically they were all kissing his ass thoroughly like the vampire versions of every power hungry little social climber she'd ever seen in politics. They were smoochers with years of practice and she just found the whole thing beyond funny to watch. 

Sookie seemed to be currently stuck between a Viking and a wall, and after everything Bill had done, or more importantly hadn't done, over the last few days she didn't seem to be in any great hurry to change that fact. 

Jason was flirting outrageously with anyone and everyone who came near him, man, woman, human, vampire, or undecided. He seemed to be bouncing back easily enough, proving that he was a Stackhouse to his core even if he wasn't as gifted as she and Sookie were with some of the more obvious gifts of the Stackhouse lineage.

Bill was hovering in a corner with the evil skank from the basement, who she had since learned was Bill's Maker Lorena. Turns out Bill's vampire mommy didn't like the fact that Billy boy was shacking up with Sookie, and Bill didn't seem to have the balls necessary to defend his honey-boo. Not that, that really surprised anyone. Hell, it probably didn't even surprise Sookie anymore. 

Soon enough she and her cousins would be trapped in a car together on the way home with nothing else to do but to deliver a few home truths to one another. Not that, that really bothered her any neither of them knew enough about her life to speak ill of it or her in any way. Not that there wouldn't be plenty to say if they did know, she was a Stackhouse after all and poor life choices was as much a family tradition as their free loving natures.

Making her way around the room she didn't stay in any one place for very long, her shields were very strong, but most of these fangbangers were really loud broadcasters so it sort of evened out though not really in her favor. 

If she heard one more fantasy about her and either one or both of her cousins getting it on for the entertainment of the masses she would be getting arrested for murder in the very near future. Even the fact that they were all related, which had circulated through the gossips like wild fire didn't seem to slow them down any. If anything that fact just seemed to add fuel to the fire, adding a taboo element to it all. Ewww!

She needed a drink if she was going to survive this.

Godric watched the young woman from before as she circled the room yet again before heading for the bar. He'd learned from his Childe a bit more about her than he'd previously known but he still did not know much.

He knew that she was related to the two Stackhouses here, one of whom seemed to be claimed by that fool Compton. Though looking over at his Childe as he leaned even further into the girls personal space he didn't see that lasting much longer. 

The other one Jason, what little he knew of him did not paint the young man in an entirely favorable light. However, the fact that he made no pretenses of being either more or less than he truly was did make him think a little better of the simpleton. A fool he may be but as far as he could see he was a well intentioned fool.

None of this however told him more about the girl who was in most respects his rescuer. She had been the one who'd initially came in after him, and the others of course. She was the one who came up with plan after plan as everything seemed to fall apart around them all constantly, never once giving in to the impulse to panic. She was as far as he could tell a very brave and intelligent young woman. He wished now that he'd met her earlier in his life, now he was just too tired to do more than wonder about her.

Suddenly her voice cut through the room, tight, commanding, and in control. Leaving no room for argument.

"Everybody get down!"

Within moments all hell broke loose and his world was once more turned head over foot.

When he was able to open his eyes again the world was on fire, or at least his furniture was. Someone had set off a bomb in his home, judging by recent events he assumed it was the Fellowship of the Sun once more wreaking havoc. He could feel the wounds left by the shrapnel and knew it would be almost impossible for him to move at the moment even if he wanted to. He felt through their bond that his Childe had also survived and while injured he was in far better shape than he was at the moment.

"Godric?"

Looking up he saw the face of an angel bathed in a golden light. It took him a moment for his vision to clear enough to see that his angel was none other than Daina Stackhouse and the golden light was the glow of the fires that surrounded them on most sides.

"Woah dude, you are tore up. You need blood right? What am I saying of course he needs blood he's a vampire blood is how they heal, come on Daina get your act together and act like you've got a brain. Duh."

Watching her reprimand herself was amusing, she seemed to both question and answer herself, no one else was truly needed for the conversation to be complete. He was so focused on this new quirk of hers that at first he didn't realize what she was doing until he smelled more of her blood. She'd cut her own wrist, not deeply but enough so that he could feed. 

He thought vaguely about protesting but before he could make up his mind her wrist was pressed to his mouth and he tasted ambrosia.

Daina didn't really know who this Nan woman was, beyond the face on the television, and she really didn't care. She was stiff and hurting all over from the bombing, she'd barely had the time to get all the soot and blood off her skin and out of her hair before this little pow-wow was called. Now, it just felt like it would never end, this Nan lady was blaming them for everything, God, she could run on, really loved the sound of her own voice this one did.

"Are you listening to me?" Nan demanded, her tone seeming to say there would be hell to pay if they weren't.

_"No."_

_"Daina!"_ That name shouting thing was fast losing it's appeal. Not that it had much appeal to begin with, but still it was starting to give her a headache with its repetition.

_"What? She asked a question and I answered it. Just be thankful I didn't answer it out loud."_

_"This woman is important-"_ Sure she was, now let's all drink that yummy looking koolaid.

_"This woman is a windbag, a politician trying everything in her power to get out from under the PR nightmare that this mess is sure to become. She's that person who looks around the room and say the buck stops wayyyy over there. She's that person who only really needs the sound of her own voice for company."_

_"Are you done?"_ Please, did her cousin not know her at all?

_"Not even close, I could go all night, but it looks like bottle blonde is starting to lose her momentum maybe someone else will be able to talk soon."_

_"Not you, this is vampire business."_ Vampire business, bitch pah-lease. That was something else that was irritating with repetition.

_"I wasn't planning on volunteering Sook, but I personally believe this is everyones business after all everyone in that room vampire, human, and other was in the line of fire. All of our lives were on the line in there, and I think they should be placing the blame squarely where it belongs."_ Not that they would. They never did instead of placing blame where it belonged types like this Nan chick always placed it where it was easiest to throw it.

_"Where?"_ What the hell did she mean where? She was starting to worry about her cousins basic reasoning skills.

_"The Fellowship!"_ Who the hell else could be to blame for the bombing? The ones who built the bomb and then sent it into the building strapped to a confused young man. Duh!

"I take full responsibility, it happened in my area, it was my fault."

_"Say what?"_

And here she was thinking that Eric's Maker was one of the smart vampires. Looking over at him she tried to see if he was joking while Eric railed against what was happening to his Maker. What she saw there instead made her heart hurt for the big Viking. If he thought this was bad, what was coming down the line would tear his heart in two.

_"Why would Godric do that, doesn't he know they'll punish him?"_ She doubted they would get the chance. This was his last act of kindness, most likely for Isobel his successor, he was falling on his sword for her.

_"I don't think he's planning to still be here when that ruling comes down Sookie."_

_"Where's he going? Europe?"_ A little further than that cousin or mine, quite a bit further.

_"The after life."_

_"What?"_

_"Look at him Sook. He's older even than Eric, if I heard right he's over two thousand years old. He's old, he's tired, his children are grown with lives of their own. I think he's planning on checking out of this hotel in a big way, and if I'm right I think he's planning on doing it at dawn."_ She couldn't even really blame him. He was moving on, taking the only next step there really was for him to take. He'd been alive for so long now he probably didn't even fear dying anymore.

_"At dawn but then he would -"_

_"Burn? Yeah, I think that's the plan."_ Though as plans went she'd heard better. There had to be an easier way to go.

_"What are we going to do?"_ That was her cousin always wanting to try to fix everything, only some things couldn't be fixed no matter how heartbreaking it is. Some decisions once made could not be easily un-made.

_"Do? What makes you think there's anything to do? He's an ancient vampire, I doubt he's doing this all spur of the moment like. If this is his choice there's nothing left to do but accept it."_

_"No, I don't believe that."_ Of course she didn't. For all the bad things that she'd seen lately her cousin still believed in rainbows and lollipops and the inherent good in all mankind.

_"Yeah, I know. You believe that every life is precious and that all life is a gift that you should treasure until the good lord takes you from this earth, but come on Sook, life isn't anywhere near that black and white and you know it. Think about it he's been alive for over two thousand years, can you even conceive the magnitude of being alive for that long? I can't. Yeah, sure some of it would be amazing and wondrous, but most of it had to be violent and dark. Think about the world, not just the U.S. since it hasn't been around that long. Think about everything that's happened over the last two thousand years. Empires rising and falling, wars, death, pain._

_“Did you know that most people don't know much about history beyond maybe the past two hundred years. Most of the things that were around when Godric was human have been long since forgotten by like ninety percent of the world. Think about that being so old that most people can only guess about what your life must have been like, and most of those guesses are probably wrong. Think about having to change and adapt as the world changed around you over and over again never once really being able to just stand still and be who you really are. If he even really remembers who he was, two thousand years is a long time and a lot of memories."_

There really was not much to be done, if someone had already made up their mind, truly made up their mind to end their existence, there wasn't much on this earth powerful enough to change it back. Not that she wouldn't try, after all there was just something about his Godric guy, she didn't think his time was as over as he thought it was.

Godric stood on the rooftop of the luxurious hotel and waited to see his first sunrise in thousands of years. There were times over the course of his life when he'd missed the warmth that he remembered the sun offering, but now he would feel it once more. 

Eric, his beloved eldest living Childe had tried to stay here with him, to not let him meet his end alone, and while he loved him for it he could not let that happen. Had had used his power over him as his Maker to force him back into the safety of the hotel, the ever present Miss Stackhouse following close on his heels after a farewell promise to look after him. 

Now here he stood alone enjoying his last few moments of darkness before the light would come.

"I suppose it wouldn't do me any good to ask you to think this through. I'm guessing you've already done that and this is where your thinking lead you."

"I have and it is." He supposed he shouldn't be surprised, Daina did seem like the type of woman to fight to the bitter end for something and she'd already made it clear that what she wanted was for him to live. He could still taste her blood on his tongue and it was divine.

"Hmm, could I interest you in a goodbye kiss before you go then?"

Thinking it over he saw no harm in her request, and since she was the last human to ever garner his true interest he was just as curious about her kiss as she seemed to be about his. When their lips met he allowed her tongue into his mouth, allowed her to dominate the kiss, it was his gift to her after all. 

When he tasted the strong flavor of her blood he knew that she'd bitten her tongue before initiating contact. But why? So lost was he in his thoughts and the taste of her that he didn't notice at first that the sun had risen and that he had yet to burn. When the light reached his closed eyes he pulled back from her in wonder. Why wasn't he burning.

"You wanted light and warmth right? You wanted the sun? I figured you couldn't really enjoy it if you were a human torch straight off, so I may have given you a little protection. It won't last very long thirty minutes tops really, but I thought you might enjoy it."

Look deep into her eyes he saw her compassion and her strength shining out towards him with all the power of the sun. The light of the day was beautiful, warm, and powerful. It was everything he remembered it to be and all he'd ever really wanted to feel again, but now looking at this woman in his arms there was something else he craved even more.

"Is the sun all I get to enjoy?" He had not felt such a strong pull towards a woman in ages, but his woman called to every part of him.

"What else did you have in mind?"

"Well, it has been many years since I've taken a woman in the full light of day. Would you indulge me for a short time longer?" What he knew of her personality the request would not offend her, she would either give in or deny him, nothing more and nothing less.

"I thought you'd never ask." As she spoke she reached up to pull him in for another kiss, this one deeper and more passionate than the last. She still had not given up on her desire to breathe life back into him, she wanted to return to him his will to live. As he slowly breathed her in he began to see just how close she was to succeeding.

Eric laid awake on his bed with the ever compassionate Sookie lying beside him and he smiled for the first time since the realization of his Makers plans had hit him. Godric was alive. The sun had risen and his maker still lived. Nothing could make this day any better than that.

Daina opened her eyes and all she saw was Godric's sleeping form beside her. After their first round of vigorous mating they had moved down to her room where he would be protected from the sun's deadly light. He would live, Eric's world wouldn't be turned upside down, Bill was well on his way out of Sookie's life, and Jason was starting to finally heal after everything he'd been through, and she had boffed her first vampire. All in all, not bad for a surprise visit to see family. Only one thing left to do now.

It was time to go home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N - So this is the end of What About Now, I have a short little three-shot story planned for the next part of this that is basically Jason, Sookie, and Daina have a very long overdue heart to heart as they make their way home, that story will be where you'll get most of the Eric/Sookie feels that never seemed to make it fully into this one no matter how hard I tried. After that I have plans to continue both with Daina/Godric and with Sookie/Eric I just don't know which to do first. I'll have to think about it after I finish the next story. I have a tentative title for it it'll be called The Long Road Home. Hope you liked this story and the world that I'm starting to build here with Daina.


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